I'm 64, in a couple weeks anyway, and can remember listening to OTR when it was still live. Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Gangbusters, FBI In Peace And War, Sargent Preston...........

Television was making inroads in the early 50's in Minneapolis, but my family didn't get one until 1956, meaning I have a lot of "live" memories from the last real decade of radio.

In 1968, after leaving the air force, my first job got me home about 1:00 am or a little later. Back then local tv signed off the air between midnight and 1:30 am, leaving me with the end of my day in an entertainment vacuum. I re-discovered radio at that time, just as the radio nostalgia craze began to take off. Stations all over the country would run this or that old series, and people began selling copies in fan publications of various sorts. Mostly reel-to-reel, but some cassettes. Not to mention the Sandy Hook people who produced the RADIOLA records we all collected at the time. Been collecting ever since.

Brightest memory of recording my own shows from this or that station. A station in Little Rock, Arkansas (KAAY) ran OTR something like Midnight to 1:00 AM on what they called Beaker Theatre. (Maybe it was Bleaker Theatre.) That was a hoot.

I found a local station that played OTR in the evenings. I found this a very relaxing and fun way to fall asleep.

The earliest shows I remember were The Aldrich Family and Lum and Abner. Nightbeat was on the station quite often too. But it was also the home of all the others, including The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre.

Basically, I fell in love with it.

Now with my 7th generation iPod, I am never without OTR and I find myself truly in love with it.

My interest comes handed down directly from my grandparents and my mother. I would hear them say things like "Tain't funny McGee!" and all sorts of other sayings, and wonder where the sayings came from.

They told me about the radio shows that used to be on, and clearly they had picked up a whole slew of phrases and sayings that were their favorites. My Mom's favorite show as a kid was Lum and Abner, and she had many phrases she liked to use from that show. So from the start, I was curious about the old radio shows.

It's funny how things were before the age of the Internet and computers. I would go to the library and read tons of books on the old radio shows and stars, but back in the day (for me, 1970's into the 80's in a small town) there was no way to actually hear them anywhere. Now everything is a click and a download away, but it's hard to think back to the pre-digital age.

So finally I requested some cassette tape copies of the old shows at my local library, and when they finally got them I must have worn every one of them out! I listened to the same shows dozens of times. I remember listening to Jack Benny, Great Gildersleeves, Lum and Abner, Amos and Andy, Our Miss Brooks, etc.etc. From the start, the comedies were my favorites, but I do recall hearing The Shadow, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Lone Ranger, etc. etc.

Also, I remember when "When Radio Was" first came on the radio where I lived and replayed some of the old shows. I would usually tape record it off the air and keep the shows.

Later, I ordered my own official sets of radio show cassettes. It's funny looking back on it; a cassette could basically only hold 1 or 2 episodes of a show per side- so even a whole collection was really just a small handful of shows.

All these years later when I finally discovered radio show mp3s readily available online thanks to sites like this, it was like the doors to a giant candy store being thrown wide open and getting to grab hand fulls of whatever you want. It's awesome to be able to hear entire series of shows, not just a few random episodes here and there. It really gives me a feel for what my folks were listening to back in the day, and how their era of entertainment shaped who they are.

I try to explain to my teenage daughters what it was like before cell phones and the Internet.

I remember having only five channels on the TV in the huge wooden enclosure with legs on it. And then there was the record player with the 8-track and radio.

Remember when all this stuff was as big as furniture. Now it all fits in the palm of your hand or even on your phone!

In many ways I miss the simple times. We played outside with our friends all day in the summer. Endless bike rides and fishing in the local pond. Then maybe a baseball game in an empty lot. I really miss that stuff.

On the other hand. I love the Internet for it's instant access to information, maps, and especially old time radio shows. Now everyone with a computer and online access can listen to thousands of shows at the click of a button.

Thanks for posting in our forum Zap. That's what makes it fun for everyone. Good conversation is getting to be a lost art. I love to see people talking and meeting new friends.

When I was living in England in the 1990s, BBC Radio broadcast some episodes of Dragnet which, as you can imagine, hooked me immediately.

Shortly after that, during a visit to New York, I came across a small Aladdin's Cave of a shop selling nothing but cassettes and cds of OTR shows. I bought as many as I could afford / carry and, once back home, began sending away for more of this material. Firstly from the dreaded Radio Spirits bunch, then from friendlier, individual sellers. And now I've found my way to this magnificent site, where I intend to stick around for a good while !

My preference is for atmospheric noir-ish detective or creepy horror shows, but I'll consider anything and look forward to making many discoveries.

When I was living in England in the 1990s, BBC Radio broadcast some episodes of Dragnet which, as you can imagine, hooked me immediately.

Shortly after that, during a visit to New York, I came across a small Aladdin's Cave of a shop selling nothing but cassettes and cds of OTR shows. I bought as many as I could afford / carry and, once back home, began sending away for more of this material. Firstly from the dreaded Radio Spirits bunch, then from friendlier, individual sellers. And now I've found my way to this magnificent site, where I intend to stick around for a good while !

My preference is for atmospheric noir-ish detective or creepy horror shows, but I'll consider anything and look forward to making many discoveries.

Welcom to the forum anton61! Glad you could join us. Enjoy your time here.

Who wouldn't be hooked on OTR by Jack Webb and Dragnet. While I got my start with CBSRMT and E.G. Marshall as a young child Dragnet is a show of top quality and a guaranteed piece of entertainment. Welcome to the group Anton61.

anton61 wrote:

When I was living in England in the 1990s, BBC Radio broadcast some episodes of Dragnet which, as you can imagine, hooked me immediately.

Shortly after that, during a visit to New York, I came across a small Aladdin's Cave of a shop selling nothing but cassettes and cds of OTR shows. I bought as many as I could afford / carry and, once back home, began sending away for more of this material. Firstly from the dreaded Radio Spirits bunch, then from friendlier, individual sellers. And now I've found my way to this magnificent site, where I intend to stick around for a good while !

My preference is for atmospheric noir-ish detective or creepy horror shows, but I'll consider anything and look forward to making many discoveries.

Im 43(Next Month), so im old enough to remember listening to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, as a kid. Probably around 5yrs ago, while looking for CBSRMT on the internet, I found a few websites devoted to OTR and was hooked after listening to some Dragnet and Gunsmoke.

I do most of my listening at work. Im in a workspace that allows the use of MP3 players, so while im at work, im really somewhere in time between 1936-1984.

I'm 40 now, I started listening to OTR when I was in my early teens if I recall correctly. I discovered KNX's 'Drama Hour' when played every night at nine great shows like Jack Benny, Dragnet, The Six Shooter, Night Beat, etc. KNX is a mega-power house out of Los Angeles, and I'm at the north end of the state, but at night time their signal would make it up here. Fade out sometimes, but was mostly listenable. I was hooked right away. I would even record the shows to listen to later, which I would have to do sometimes because I'd fall asleep during the commercials. Still have those tapes around here somewhere too.

In my 20's I pretty much dropped out of the hobby, busy living life as we get in our 20's, but occasionally I'd still tune in 1070 on the AM dial at 9:00PM. They were a rock, years could go by, but you could always count on the Drama Hour being there. Until 2003 when KNX got new management and inexperienced new management always makes changes. No more Drama Hour.

About four years ago I started buying some collections off of ebay. I hadn't stared listening to them yet, but I knew someday I'd want to get back into the hobby.

About five years ago my wife got me an MP3 player for my birthday. Didn't take too long to put the two together. Got to where I'd be listening to OTR with the MP3 player when I'd do chores around the property and working in the garage and the shop. Even sometimes at work if things are quiet. The beauty of OTR is you can be entertained and keep the hands and eyes free. Now I look forward to tinkering on something just so I can listen to the shows.

While surfing the net I discovered the OTRR group and found the downloads they provide. This was an amazing find for me as I wanted to grow my collection more, but the prices a certain company that markets OTR charges are stupid high. Finding the shows for free was like finding a gold mine. (Didn't cost that certain company a cent either since I wasn't going to pay those prices in the first place.)

I believe someone at the Archive mentioned this forum and the website, I've found a few others, but Brad's site seems to have the largest collection I've found. I really appreciate all the work that everyone has put into saving, preserving, and sharing OTR. The last few years have been good ones for entertainment for me. We had canceled our cable TV about eight years ago, too much money for too little, nothing good on TV anymore.

Sorry so long!! But that's my OTR story and I finally got to share it! LOL!